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Soak the riders – or soak the taxpay ers: Those are the options facing the perpetually cash-strapped Metropol itan Transportation Authority.

Or so said MTA Executive Director Elliot Sander in legislative testimony up in Albany on Wednesday.

Sander claims that, absent more state tax dollars, the MTA will be forced into another round of fare hikes next year, right on top of this year’s increases.

Hand it to Sander: On the job for little more than a year, and he’s already mastered the veteran bureaucrat’s whine.

Leadership and imagination?

Not so much.

It should go without saying that keeping a 720-mile subway system running 24/7 – and don’t forget the buses and commuter trains – requires pretty hefty funding.

On balance, the greater share of the burden should fall on riders – those who use the system every day, and at bargain rates, to boot: They pay far less than those in other cities, but get far more service.

That said, Sander must do more to encourage trust in the agency he runs – before going into full Cassandra mode and begging/demanding more money.

Sander insisted the previous hike was essential for capital improvements. Yet, the increase wasn’t a month old before he deep-sixed those improvements, noting that real-estate-transfer taxes – a major revenue source for the MTA – had dropped sharply.

That may have been true, but one can hardly blame the skepticism of beleaguered New Yorkers for thinking they’d been victims of a classic bait-and-switch.

Now, three months later, Sander is back – asking for more state money as the only way to avoid “[raised] fares . . . service cutbacks or cutting staff.”

Again, fare hikes may well be needed to keep one of the best urban transit systems in the world up and running.

But there is also something called accountability and leadership.

Unless Sander can temper his whining with some concrete proposals – if there is a need to cut, what is the plan? – maybe he’s not the leader the MTA needs during these difficult times.